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Journalism of Courage
The European Commission has drawn up a list of 35 food and drink brand names including Champagne, Bordeaux wine, Roquefort cheese and Parma ham that it wants to reserve for EU producers, senior officials said on Friday.
The EU executive is launching a campaign to return established European food and drink names to the EU fold and stop their use in the rest of the world by fighting for trademark protection in the WTO.
‘‘We’re trying to recuperate the exclusive use of such names in the WTO,’’ said an official. ‘‘We’ve been usurped of the names and we want them back.’’
The Commission said it was a disgrace that Parma ham made in Italy had to be marketed as ‘super ham’ in Canada because a Canadian firm had the local rights to the name ‘Parma’.
The Commission said it wanted to present the list at a crucial WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico in September where the principles on how to liberalise farm trade could be agreed.
